Category Archives: NOTD Photos

Sinful Colors has released three new collections for Summer 2014, each with a mix of permanent, repromoted, and new shades. You can read all the details about each collection on Nouveau Cheap. I bought one new shade from each collection (plus a repromote), and have quick swatches of them for you today. Continue reading →

Sinful Colors recently released a new line of permanent products, the Sinful Shine polishes with Gel Tech – supposedly five times glossier than the regular line of Sinful Colors polishes (many of which I find quite glossy, actually). Per the display, these can be found exclusively at Walgreens.

In the spirit of St. Patrick’s day, today’s NOTD is a bright springtime green (Pure Ice Free Spirit) with a green holo topcoat (Milani Hi-Tech). Both polishes are swatched individually below.

And, if you’re trying to figure out which green polish to wear today, here are twelve of my favorites (I purchased all of these myself).

Butter London Wallis // Color Club Port-Folio // Hits Mari Moon Cool

Butter London Wallis is one of my favorite greens of all time; I just love the antique gold-greens whether in nail polish or eyeshadow.

Color Club Port-Folio is actually purple, but has a strong green duochrome. It would be a great “green” to wear if you don’t want to wear a green!

Hits Mari Moon Cool is a gorgeous gold/green/purple duochrome – I just love all the Hits duochromes!

China Glaze OMG A UFO // Milani Hi-Tech // A-England St. George

China Glaze OMG A UFO is a new favorite – a linear green holo, YAY! (By the way, the [affiliate] link goes to CherryCulture, who is selling the China Glaze holos for only $3.99 each; the best price I’ve seen. They’re all out of stock at the moment, but perhaps they will be back soon, or perhaps they haven’t come in yet).

Milani Hi-Tech is a scattered green holo. This is three coats; it’s very sheer, which I actually love, because it layers so well – you can make a dusty green holo as in this post, or a bright green holo like in the current post. I think this may be discontinued (sadly!) – I don’t see it available for purchase online at the usual suspects, and it was recently on clearance at CVS.

It’s surprising that two of my favorite greens are Essie polishes, since I only have a handful of Essies in my stash, but I really do love both the dark murky green of Armed & Ready and the lighter murky green of Sew Psyched.

Pure Ice Free Spirit // OPI Don’t Mess With OPI // Hard Candy Jubilee

Pure Ice Free Sprit (exclusively available in Walmart stores) is such a HAPPY bright green with a subtle shimmer. I love it.

OPI Don’t Mess With OPI came out about two years ago as part of the Texas collection, which is best known for its gorgeous jellies (which I also love). It’s still quite easy to find – I often see it at CVS.

Hard Candy just reformulated and redid its entire nail polish line. It’s up on Walmart.com here, but not in stock yet. Jubilee is a mixed bag; I love how it looks, but it’s tricky to work with – the red bar glitters curl, and it’s quite thick. I have three coats of topcoat on the swatch (none of the other polishes have any topcoat). Still, it’s unique and interesting, so it may be worth it to you!

Which of these polishes do you like?

*As noted in this review, I purchased all twelve of the featured polishes. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

I am really enjoying the textured nail trend. I love the OPI liquid sand polishes – I bought the mini set with all four – and just purchased one of Zoya’s Pixie Dust polishes, which you see in the photo above. Photos don’t capture the polish very well though – you can see the matte, textured effect, but you can’t see how incredibly sparkly the polish is. The contrast between the matte and the sparkle is part of what makes the look work so well.

I’m also eagerly awaiting the Milani textured polishes – they’re online at Milani.com (though the page doesn’t seem to be working at the moment), but I haven’t seen them yet at drugstores in my area. I’m planning to get the gray only; I’m not yet sold on the idea of brightly colored textured polish. Here’s the promo image, in case you haven’t seen it yet:

– If you’ve been looking for the new Wet n Wild Fergie items, they’re now available to purchase online at Drugstore.com & at Walgreens.com – both sites have free shipping over $25. I recommend the Perfect Pout lipsticks (review) & the eyeshadow primer (review). And if you are interested in this kind of information right when I find out about it, please follow me on Twitter or Facebook!

– I’ve been trying to remember to photograph my nails & post them on my Instagram ; here’s a recent NOTD & an old one:

Nail Pattern Boldness Ignition (remix) over black

L’oreal Nail Lingerie stickers over Color Club Cherubic

– Please see the poll to the right (directly above the archives) – I would love your feedback on the types of posts you enjoy! If you have any additional comments, please leave them on this post (and of course, you’re always welcome to email, tweet, or contact me).

– And finally, this only applies to a couple readers (most of you know this!) but please don’t link to your blog or website in the comments; per my comment policy, your comment will not be approved. I’ve had to delete some very thoughtful comments lately because they contain a “Jane Doe at www.example.com” at the end. If you’d like me to check out your blog, please email me – introduce yourself, say hi, and I will!

This week, CVS has Revlon all Revlon nail polish on sale for $4.99 with $3 Extra Bucks back, bringing the effective price of the nail polish down to $1.99 each – so I thought it was a good time to try out Revlon’s new Brilliant Strength polishes! I bought four shades, and I’ve done some quick swatches for you on swatch sticks.

Revlon Enrapturetwo coats, no top coat

Enrapture is a tricky color – in some lights it looks like a reddened plum, in other lights it looks more purple. I was worried about brush strokes when I applied it, but they almost completely disappeared as it dried – and I’m sure that it would have an even smoother finish with top coat (I swatch without top coat in order to better show the polish’s finish). Enrapture is opaque in two coats.

Revlon Enthralltwo coats, no top coat

Enthrall is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I love it. It’s a very dark blackened green with flecks of gold shimmer. It applied beautifully and was almost, but not quite, opaque in one coat (so I did two).

Revlon Hypnotizetwo coats, no top coat

Revlon Hypnotize is an antique gold. It reminds me of Urban Decay Honey eyeshadow. Like Enthrall, Hynotize had very significant brushstrokes when applied, but they evened out as it dried. Again, top coat would give it an even smoother finish. Hypnotize is opaque in two coats.

Revlon Tantalizethree coats, no topcoat

Tantalize is a very shimmery grass green. It is significantly more sheer than the other shades – it took three coats to be opaque, and if they had been thinner coats it might have required four. It’s a very pretty polish though, so you might find it worth the effort!

And finally, my NOTD is a saran wrap manicure using Enthrall as a base and Hypnotize on top. Here’s a tutorial – it’s really very easy to do, and gives a very pretty marbled effect.